


The Law of the Wasteland

by Periculum Dulce (SparkleHellQueen)



Series: The She-Wolf of Vegas [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-10 22:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4410026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleHellQueen/pseuds/Periculum%20Dulce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kill to eat, eat to live. That was the law of the wasteland.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Law of the Wasteland

“Kill him!” he demanded, thick spittle hanging from the jagged edges of his teeth.

She couldn't move. The man in front of her cowered like a rabbit in an eagle's shadow.

He made a strange gesture with his right hand, one she had never seen before, moving it from his forehead, then down, from left shoulder to right before he clasped both shaking hands together.

Her own hand shook nearly as much as his. The rusted blade threatened to slip out of her sweaty palm.

“What the hell are you waiting for? If you don't kill him, you die! You have to be at the top of the foodchain if you want to survive! If you wanna live, you gotta eat! And you can't eat unless you fucking kill! Now hurry the fu-”

She never heard the ending of that last sentence as it was drowned out by her own screaming. A sound that had never come out of her own throat before, and never would again after that. It was the single primal scream of first blood.

The man was next to scream. He clutched, shrieking, at the deep divide that now spanned the length of his torso. Organs glimmered slick in the sunlight.

Kill to eat, eat to live. That was the law of the wasteland.

He kept on screaming. He wasn't dead. Why wasn't he dead?

She slashed again, hitting an artery in his neck. Pure luck. Blood sprayed, covering her shirt. Her legs. Her face. His screams only escalated.

Kill to eat, eat to live.

This time she struck harder, using both hands, landing a blow that severed all but one tendon connecting his arm to his shoulder.

Kill, eat, live. 

Those words still rang in her brain many years later, as she wandered the wasteland with no name and no memories; completely alone for the first time in her life.

Kill, eat, live. Repeat.

She just wanted those screams to stop. The image of the man flailing in the dark, viscous pools of his own blood was burned into her eyes. Why wouldn't he stop? 

Kill, eat, live. Repeat.

She stabbed wildly, making no effort to aim. The squelches of metal entering flesh slowly drowned out his voice, until finally no sounds remained. Silence. Sweet silence.

Kill, eat, live. Repeat.

She would meet many different men, great men, with the power to change the wasteland at their will. Kings in their castles. 

That is no way to live, they would tell her. There were other, better ways, to not only survive— but to thrive! Being civilized, they called it. And all it took was making people recognize the laws of civilization: that some just belonged at the bottom. The foundation to the towers of these castles.

Junkies. The poor. Raiders. Wastrels. The uneducated. The weak. Women.

But am I not a woman, she would ask them. Am I not a wastrel? A raider? A junkie? Weak, uneducated, and poor?

No, they all told her. You are an exception. The stars aligned and gave her great potential. Potential in the form of a single, platinum chip.

Kill, eat, live. Repeat.

Those men had lied to her, as men do. She watched them fight. She watched their castles fall and crumble, crushing them beneath their foundations.

What these kings would never know is that the wasteland was the only true victor of war. Nature trumped civilization, the frail invention of mankind.

Kill to eat, eat to live. The one truth that ran through the veins of every living creature.

“You did good, kid,” he clapped a hand on her small, trembling shoulder. “Let's bring him back to the others, he'll make a fine meal.”

Kill.

Eat.

Live.

That was the law of the wasteland.


End file.
